World Series hero Brosius finds the good life coaching college team in Oregon

AP photoScott Brosius, center, is congratulated by Yankee teammates Roger Clemens, left, and Chuck Knoblauch, right, after hitting a dramatic two-run home run in the 2001 World Series.McMINNVILLE, Ore. — His World Series rings are locked away in a safe at his home, about 3,000 miles from the bright lights of the Big Apple.

Former Yankee Scott Brosius is now Coach Brosius, guiding the baseball team of his alma mater, Linfield College.

While time and distance separate him from the big leagues, Brosius is still enjoying success — just on a different level. Way different.

"My first road trip it was like, ’Oh yeah, I gotta take my own bag on and off the bus. Welcome to real life,’ " he said.

The Division III Wildcats went 30-10 in the regular season to claim the Northwest Conference. Brosius, in his third year at the helm, was named the league’s coach of the year.

Linfield, ranked No. 14 by the American Baseball Coaches Association, plays host to a six-team NCAA regional this week. Second-seeded Linfield will open against fifth-seeded Mississippi College (36-9) on Wednesday. The winner advances to the double-elimination D-III championship in Appleton, Wis.

The job at Linfield is just part time and pays "probably less than minimum wage," Brosius jokes. But this is more of a labor of love: He himself bought the field lights and the infield turf at the school’s Roy Hesler Field.

Brosius has a tiny office in the back of the third base dugout. The walls hold photos from his playing days, one of the Yankees visiting the White House, another of the ticker-tape parade through Manhattan after the 1998 World Series championship.

Brosius was named MVP of that World Series. The Yankees went on to win the title again in 1999 and 2000.

Originally drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 20th round of the 1987 amateur draft, Brosius made his big league debut in 1991. He was traded after the 1997 season to the Yankees.

His best year in the majors came that first season in New York, when he hit .300 with 19 homers and 98 RBIs.

Brosius — called ’Brosius the Ferocious’ by Yankees play-by-play announcer John Sterling — left the game after the 2001 season with no regrets. He’d collected his three rings, a Gold Glove and an All-Star nod.

It was a family decision, not a baseball decision, he said.

"I never wanted baseball to feel like work, I never wanted to resent it. I felt like if I kept playing it would almost do more harm than good. I was so fortunate the things I got to experience, going to four straight World Series, winning three of them. I got to play in an All-Star game," he said. "I knew I wasn’t going to the Hall of Fame. There was nothing to chase, so I was done chasing. The time was right."

An Oregon native, Brosius returned to McMinnville, where he made his offseason home. He had friends there and his father had even taken a job there.

The town of some 33,000 residents is located about 35 miles southwest of Portland in the heart of Oregon’s wine country.

McMinnville is the birthplace of children’s author Beverly Cleary and home to an annual UFO festival — the legacy of a famous series of photographs of a mysterious craft hovering above the town that were published by Life magazine in the 1950s.

In many ways Linfield looks like a small East Coast college plunked down in the West, complete with red-brick colonial dormitories and a bell tower that chimes on the hour.

Brosius lives just a short drive away.

"He loves coaching and he has a passion for it," athletic director Scott Carnahan said. "He’s great with the kids.

After his retirement from professional baseball, Brosius served as an assistant at Linfield under then-coach Carnahan. Brosius took over in 2008

In three seasons, Brosius is 96-35 as coach of the Wildcats. This season’s team, largely the product of his recruiting, is led by senior shortstop Kelson Brown, the conference player of the year, and sophomore Ryan Larson, the league’s pitcher of the year.

Brosius said that while name recognition probably draws some interested players to Linfield, at the D-III level there are no scholarships.

"I guess there’s probably some credibility in a student’s mind if they’re looking for a coach that has some experience and maybe knows what he’s talking about," Brosius said. "But I think as you move further along into the recruiting process, the decisions they make become a bit more above that. There’s certainly a comfort level with the coaching staff that’s important, but then because they are paying for this — because we can’t scholarship them — they have to feel real good about the school and what it has to offer."

Once they get there, Brosius doesn’t regale his players with endless stories about his glory days with the Yankees.

This, after all, is real life.

"All in all, we don’t talk a ton about that stuff. Everybody knows that I played and stuff like that," he said. "My goal, and I think I can draw some from that experience, is to show what I’ve learned along the way."